BALTIMORE
-- A group of elementary schools playing with thermometers caused a hazmat
situation Friday in Baltimore.

Fire
department spokesman Kevin Cartwright said more than a dozen people were
isolated after broken thermometers prompted concerns about the mercury insi
de.

The
incident occurred at Rodman Elementary School on West Mulberry Street.

The students and staffers affected were to be showered in a
decontamination trailer.
span>

There
were no injuries reported.

Cartwright
said the students were playing with thermometers that broke and released
mercury.

Y’all knew this was coming, right?
p>

Once again, the absence of someone (anyone) with a cool head
and
a mere modicum of common sense has caused a heinous over-reaction to a
non-situation.

Before several amongst you inundate me with claims of how th
is
really is a serious event, let me pre-empt your knee-jerk reactions to my
statement:

1) Unquestionably, mercury is hazardous, and represent
s a
severe chronic threat, particularly when exposures occur over an extended
period of time.

2) Proper remediation of the spill must be
performed any time mercury is spilled.

3) As noted in the earlier discussion, EPA must be
notified if more than 454g are released.

But folks, seriously? Decontamination of the st
aff
and students? This is patently and demonstrably asinine. There
is
NO conceivable scenario, dealing with elemental mercury from a thermometer
or
two, in a room of moderate size and with normal ventilation, by which these
folks were exposed to anything remotely warranting bringing in a
220;decontamination
trailer”. If there were an acute danger from playing with mercu
ry
from thermometers, I and most every science major in my generation would
already be brain-damaged and/or dead.

Again, my main focus here is the fact that we are reinforcin
g MINDLESS
FEAR instead of understanding and respect for chemicals.&nbsp
; If
we, the ‘experts’ in response, don’t exercise wisdom and
judgment,
if we make every call to us a local disaster response, eventually someone w
ill
not report something because they don’t want to cause a scene –
and
that’ll be the one we will have really wanted them to bring us in on.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative a
nd
independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and sh
ould
do for themselves.

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